Lecturer sees global concerns faring well under grass-roots organizations’ influence By John Fulwider Staff Reporter The decreasing importance of national governments bodes well for the global environment, a lec turer said Thursday. Jessica Tuchman Mathews spoke at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts as the fifth and last speaker in the E.N. Thompson Fo rum on World Issues lecture series. Mathews, a columnist for The Washington Post, addressed the in tersection of economics, trade and the environment, and the political ramifications. Mathews said the Cold War’s threat of nuclear annihilation blocked out other concerns, such as the earth’s environment. But the present lack of global conflict has freed the voices of grass-roots organizations. Follow ing the Cold War, Mathews said, the importance and influence of non governmental organizations — NGOs — has steadily increased, while that of national governments has decreased. “The shift is revolutionary both in its scope and its consequences,” she said. Grass-roots organizations have focused attention on global envi ronmental issues. Mathews said the top global environmental concerns were ozone loss, deforestation, greenhouse warming and loss of biodiversity through species extinc tion. Top regional concerns were water pollution and shortages and air pollution, she said. A major factor in the shift from governmental to non-governmen tal influence on global issues has Travis Heying/DN Jessica Tuchman Mathews, a columnist for the Washington Post, talks with Chancellor Graham Spanier before beginning her E.N. Thompson Lecture Thursday at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Mathews’ lecture, titled “Trade, Development, and the Environment,” was the last E.N. Thompson lecture of the season. been the telecommunications and media revolution, she said. NGO’s were strengthened at the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she said. The use of electronic-mail bulletins on the summit’s progress, she said, al lowed many people to influence their government’s actions at the summit. With the government losing its ability to analyze and control com munications, she said, new voices are finding outlets and achieving their goals. “The media are potent destroy ers ofgovernment control,” she said. Mathews said the top global pri ority now was agreeing on whether trade measures could be used to protect the global environment. Contrary to some opinions, she said, international trade agreements, which include environmental regu lation, do not stifle economic de velopment. She said economic gains from trade liberalization balanced out losses from environmental pro tection laws. She said some environmental ists who believed the only way to protect the environment was to re strict economic growth were wrong. Mathews said a new world order was emerging. “Albeit a disorderly one,” she said. senators overhaul I legal aid By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter With 14 days left in the Nebraska legislative session, senators have yet to debate the crime bill, welfare re form and the budget bill on the floor. Instead, lawmakers spent nearly 3 1/2 hours Thursday amending and debating a bill that would provide state funds for a legal defense team for indigent criminals, but fell short of taking substantive action. Debate on LB646, sponsored by Sen. Doug Kristensen of Minden, passed two amendments overhauling the bill, but a large amount of debate provided senators with a vehicle for several broader arguments. Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said he was going to use the bill as a vehicle to repeal the death penalty. Kristensen charged Sen. John Lind say of Omaha with fanning rural/ur ban flames. Sen. Chris Beutler of Lin coln said he was losing faith in bills aiding rural counties without reform ing inefficient county governments. Throughout the afternoon, how ever, Kristensen kept bringing sena tors back to the original intent of the bill — providing a state-funded legal defense team for indigent criminals. After an amendment sponsored by Kristensen passed 28-0, the bill allo cated general fund money for a 3 - to 4 person defense staff for indigent crimi nals without requiring counties to con tribute to the fund. Sen. Floyd Vrtiska of Table Rock said there was a need for the legal defense provision. Richardson county, which is in Vrtiska’s district, found itself in financial trouble recently when it incurred more than $200,000 in le gal defense costs for a high-profile murder case. “It’s a crisis issue as far as I’m concerned,” he said. Yours and yours alone. MAC, The awesome computer with all the bells and whistles. ASAR We mean like yesterday. i jr Macintosh Performs® 6115 w/CD 8MB RAM/350MB bard drive, CD-ROM drive, 15” color display, keyboard, mouse and all the software you’re likely to need. i fV'r LaserWriter Select 360 Tbner cartridge included. Macintosh Performs* 636 w/CD 8MB RAM/250MB bard drive, CD-ROM drive, 14" color display, keyboard, mouse and all tbe software you're likely to need Color StyleWriter 2400 Ink cartridge and cable included. Being a student is hard. So we've made buying a Macintosh easy. So easy, in fact, that prices on Macintosh personal computers are now even lower than their already low student prices. And with the Apple* Computer Loan and 90-Day Deferred Payment Plan, you can take home a MacTwith out having to make a single payment for up to 90 days. Which means you can also i i take home the power to make any student!; life easier The power to be your best* xu)D16Vk The CRC Computer Shop* 501 Building - 501N. 10th Street, University of Nebraska, 472-5787, Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Tuesday until 6 p.m. •Students, faculty and staff status must meet CRC Computer Shop educational purchase qualifications. University ID required to order and purchase. ^*F*aa,^termUb $February 1995 bad an Merest rate cfnS7\ with an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 1332% Tbe monthly payment and Ik APR shown atatmts